


Talk Me Through It

by scar-and-boomerang (Y_Woo)



Series: Zukka Week 2020 [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Feel-good, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Heart-to-Heart, Light Angst, M/M, Mild Gore, Mild Injury, Some Humor, a lot of fluff, heart to heart talks, just zukka being cuties, like just descriptions of burn dressing and stuff, no plot really, really mild though, you'll be fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:07:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22359979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Y_Woo/pseuds/scar-and-boomerang
Summary: Zuko took a fireball to the shoulder when he was ambushed by some firebenders unhappy with the nation's leadership, but luckily Sokka is here to help with that. Sokka is insecure about not being a bender to be of more use to his boyfriend in moments of need, but luckily Zuko is here to help with that.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Zukka Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1607521
Comments: 18
Kudos: 627





	Talk Me Through It

**Author's Note:**

> Day 3  
> Prompt: Pain/Healing  
> Own tags: Post-canon timeline, no AU, 'established relationship' story
> 
> So this is a short one that I wrote to gain a day back from being behind schedule (didn't work btw, am still behind schedule), and also to shake things up a little with an established relationship story instead of a getting together one, and just a chance to write some sweet and sappy interactions instead of the pining. Because writing too much pining can be as frustrating as the pining itself.
> 
> Enjoy the short read!

Zuko hissed lowly as another stained bandage is ripped away from his right shoulder, taking small bits of half-formed scabs and skin stuck to it on its way. “Will you stop wriggling so much?” Behind him, his boyfriend, who had been doing the ripping, scolded with no real harshness.

The Fire Lord mumbled something about the pain, but made an earnest attempt to sit more still. The last piece of dressing came off, and the cool air in the room grazed against his wounded upper back, stinging a little.

“It’s looking much better than yesterday.” Sokka remarked slowly, “that or it’s a lot worse. Is pus supposed to go from green to yellow or yellow to green?”

“Oh dear Agni.”

“Remind me again why isn’t a trained medic doing this?”

“Because you’re the only one I love enough to actually try not to set on fire when I’m in pain?” Zuko offered weakly, trying to ignore the burning of his shoulder as Sokka cleaned the intact skin around the burst blisters with a soft cloth, “besides, I had a physician look it over the day I got it and he said it was okay as long as I keep cleaning and dressing it.”

“As touched as I am, love, this is ridiculous.” A firm hand was placed on Zuko’s other, uninjured shoulder and pushed him down on his stomach. “Alright, I think it’s best if you lied down for this bit.”

Deeming it best to not remind Sokka of his bruised ribs, he folded his arms below his head and tilted it to one side, ignoring the pain by focusing on the Water Tribe boy wrestling to open the jar of burn salve in the corner of his vision.

The warm paste made contact with the blistered burn patch and Zuko groaned, pressing his face into the pillow between his arms, and kicked his legs. He couldn't help but think about the last time he felt this exact sensation, when it was someone spreading the salve on another part of his body, and how far he's come since then, and how life comes full circle at you sometimes.

“Sorry, sorry!” Sokka said apologetically, “I’m really not good at this. I can try to go slower but we may just have to power through this.”

“I’m starting to feel like I picked the wrong sibling to date here.” Zuko teased through the stinging sensation on his back.

“Don’t you even dare, you don’t mean that!” Sokka exclaimed, scandalised, and swatted at the firebender, accidentally getting some burn cream on the small of his bare back, which immediately began to warm up on his skin vaguely.

“You’re right, I don’t. I take that back.” He conceded with a slight smile, then immediately gritted his teeth as a fresh layer of cream is applied. “Just… talk me through it?”

It was becoming something like a ritual between them, whenever Zuko was stressed, anxious, in pain, or anything unavoidably unpleasant, he’d ask Sokka to talk him through it. It was something he had a knack for, all of them from their little gang knew that. After all, Katara and Toph complained enough about Sokka’s untimely displays of wit and verbosity.

That never bothered Zuko though. He loved staring at the other boy as he ranted on, making any dumb little subject the most fascinating tale in the world. The young Fire Lord was a man of few words himself, so perhaps that was the reason he found such solace and peace in the confidence behind every sentence Sokka blabbered happily.

During long nights of insomnia and bad dreams, he got lost in silly little tales of hunting sown leopard seals in the frosty tundra and sibling rivalries fuelled by snowball fights amidst nonstop, frozen precipitation all year round, tales of family, acceptance, and love. It brought him an inexplicable sense of comfort and belonging.

“Well, It’s probably nothing compared to what you are going through right now, but once I got two fish hooks stuck in my thumb, and it was the most painful thing I remember from my childhood. There was a lot of screaming.”

“Two?”

“I tried to get the first fish hook out with another fish hook, it slipped and lodged itself in my thumb next to the other one. Then Gran Gran tried to get it out but she was old and her hands shook so it just hurt a lot, so we had to wait for my dad to come back. When he did, though, he told me that I was a genius for coming up with the idea of attaching myself to the hook for bait to catch leopard seals instead of fish. He was being sarcastic, of course, but tiny Sokka didn’t know that. At the time I just cried a lot about the proposal.”

Shaking with laughter, Zuko’s shoulder jerked back and hit Sokka’s cream-covered palm with enough force to make him let out a guttural moan of agony.

“Holy spirits, stay still!”

“It’s not my fault you’re this hilarious.”

“You’re right, I’m a gem.” Sokka flashed a cheeky grin that would have gone unappreciated if it weren’t for Zuko turning his head once more to look up at him. “Right, we’re almost done here. You’re going to have to sit back up.”

Zuko obliged and raised his arms for Sokka to pass the bandage over his shoulder and under his arm to cover the wound and secure the dressings, the latter taking this opportunity to poke at the former in his exposed sides where he is most ticklish.

“Mmmph, stop, stop!” Zuko writhed, trying to get away, which only made him lose his balance and fall back onto the bed on his back, impacting the newly-bandaged injury his ribcage at the same time. He squeezed his eye shut and breathed heavily out his nose.

“Spirts, oh I am so sorry.” Sokka at least had to good conscience to look stricken.

“See, this is what I meant about not setting you on fire. If anyone else pulled this stunt they’d be adequately crispy by now.”

“In that case, thank you for your mercy.” Sokka said, leaning down on top of him, carefully avoiding hurting him further, and planted a quick kiss to Zuko’s lips. “Consider this my apology.”

“Hmph, I don’t know, it doesn’t feel to sincere to me. Maybe you should try again.” Zuko teased.

“Nice try,” the boy on top of him play-scowled dramatically, but granted him a deeper kiss nonetheless, “now I can’t believe I am actually saying this, but we need to get some clothes on you.”

Laughing, Zuko sat up slowly and cautiously as Sokka padded across the room to retrieve his robes.

* * *

Zuko was woken up by a strained cramp pain in his neck in the middle of the night. He’d been lying in the same position for far too long, and could feel his muscles seizing up. Attempting to roll over onto his side, he gingerly propped himself up on his good arm, and shifted towards the inside of the bed carefully. Still, the movement jerked the skin on his burn and sent a sharp stab of pain down his spine. He hissed lowly.

“Hmmmhm, are you in pain again?” Came the drowsy mumble of Sokka next to him, “I can redo the burn salve if you want.”

“No, that’s okay.” Zuko whispered back apologetically, “go back to sleep, I can live with this until tomorrow morning.”

“Nope, too late, I’m up.” True enough, the Water Tribe boy’s voice came out normally this time, without any remnant of sleep. He shoved an arm between his pillow and head to lift himself up, and stared at his boyfriend’s silhouette in the darkness. “What do you want me to do?”

“I dunno, my neck’s cramping and my shoulder’s burning again and I can’t go back to sleep like this, talk me through it?”

Reaching out place an arm on Zuko’s waist, Sokka touched him softly, hoping to provide some distraction on his senses from the pain, and also to reassure himself of the other’s presence in the pitch black room. He wanted to scoot nearer and slot himself into the other boy’s chest and soak in as much warmth as he could, but he didn’t think he could pull it off without hurting Zuko further. So instead, he talked.

“When I saw you get hit by that fireball,” he whispered shakily, opting for something more serious than his usual jest, “my heart stopped. I don’t think I’ve been that scared since I faced a literal psychopathic Fire Lord during the Comet.

“But I think far worse than the fear was the guilt, actually. I was the one to put you in harm’s way. Not just because they were clearly targeting you because they’re unhappy about… us, and this. But also I knew you had your back turned to the firebender because you were looking out for me. And you were looking out for me because I’m a nonbender. So I guess it just makes me scared that all our lives I’m going to continue to be a risk for you because I can’t hold my own in a fight against benders.

“And the worst part is I can’t even heal you when you get hurt. You have to get better the slow and agonising way because Katara is away and I can’t do anything more about it.”

Zuko shook his head at this sudden confession, squeezing his eyes shut even though it was the middle of the night and his vision was already nonexistent anyway.

“Sokka, I…” he started, his inability with words has never been as painfully obvious as it was in that moment. “I was distracted by looking out for you, yes. But it wasn’t because I thought you couldn’t handle it, but because I love you, and I’m always going to worry because I care about you, and I wanted to be aware of where you were and how you were doing beside me. It was a clumsy mistake on my part, and not your fault.

“And you’re the fiercest and most skilled warrior I’ve ever met, love. Your way with a sword is unmatched in a fight by most benders, and that’s not even counting that brilliant, one-of-a-kind, intelligent brain of yours.

“I want you by my side for the rest of my life, Sokka, working together to fix the world, which means there’ll be a lot more battles we’ll face side by side. And I’m going to get hurt again and again protecting you, and I would do it every time without hesitation, because I know there will be times you’re going to go through the same thing for me. It’s just something we’ll have to learn to live with. It’s what loving a person means.

“And it’s enough, magic water voodoo or not, it’s enough for me just to be with you, every moment of the way.”

The hand moved from his lower waist up to his face now, and tentative fingers thumbed the curve and crook of Zuko’s lips. The latter turned his head slightly to kiss Sokka’s knuckles slowly.

“It’s just we both know all too well how easy it is to lose someone in the blink of an eye, and I don’t want to have to go through that ever again.” Sokka told him.

“I’m here,” Zuko assured him, “I’m still here, and I always will be, right here by your side, whining for you to look after me.”

Sokka chuckled affectionately, “get some sleep, love.” He told him. Then, after a while of calm, steady breathing, he was the one to break the silence again on a more lighthearted tone. “Hey, that totally worked.”

“What?” Zuko demanded, cracking a single eye open slightly.

“I got a killer, ego-boosting compliment out of you.”

“Ughhhhh,” Zuko groaned loudly to the giggling of Sokka in the background, “as if that giant head of yours needs more inflating. Just shut up and pass out already.”

As the blanket of slumber descended upon the two boys, neither could feel more safe and loved as they did that night, with each other.


End file.
